Doctor T Designs

Apparently I cannot be trusted with a day off from work. While I had quite a few other things I should have been doing over this holiday weekend, a day off from work felt like the perfect excuse to sew after a month on the road, so I decided to fit in a quick project using my new favorite bra pattern, the Make Bra DL02.

As much as I love to make exiting bras with fun laces and other materials, if I’m being honest it’s the simple ones that work well under light clothing that are the most versatile and see a lot of wear and tear. So while I have some fun versions of the DL02 planned, pragmatically I knew I really needed a boring beige bra. So, in my limited sewing time, I made one.

Most of the materials come from Emerald Erin in the Latte color way, though I didn’t have any more strapping elastic in that color so I am using the slightly lighter peach color from Gigi’s for that, and I’m using the heavy wires and a longer hook and eye from Procelynne. To try and spice up my life, I also decided to try a new to me foam material for the lining. On my pervious versions, I used the heavy duty form from Wawak for the cups. I’ll be honest – I actually like the thick foam a lot. I know a lot of people find it too thick, but as a base for a very stretchy jersey cover, it’s pretty great because the foam cup provides all the stability and the cup is really supportive. It can be a bit of a pain to work with though; I find I need to pull out the super heavy duty topstitching needles to manage sewing through the foam and casing when I get to that step. However, despite generally liking the thicker foam, I wasn’t sure how that thick foam would pair with a less stretchy fabric like duoplex. So I decided to test out the other cut and sew foam offered by Wawak for this version of the DL02. This foam is stretchy and quite a bit thinner than the other foam I used. It’s really more of a thin foam lining than a really structured foam cup. For context, the Wawak heavy foam is probably the thickest cut and sew foam I’ve used, and the stretch cut and Sew from Wawak is probably the thinnest. Most of the cut and sew foams I’ve bought from other suppliers (Emerald Erin, Procelynne, Gigi’s, Bra Bulders, etc.) are a nice middle ground between the two options from Wawak. It’s nice to know what’s out there, but it’s also nice to know what you’re getting if you order things from different places, especially if someone is out of stock or if tariffs continue to throw shipping and supply chains into disarray.

I think in the image you can see that the cup has a little bit of structure (more than the fabric alone), but not nearly as much as might be expected with some of the really robust foam. The duoplex actually provides the support, and the foam just adds a bit of padding to the inside of the cups. I actually really like this; it prevents the cups from feeling overly stiff, but I appreciate the slight bit of padding the foam provides as I find it rather comfortable. The only issue I had in working with it was that I found the foam on the neckline stretched out a bit when I stabilized it with some twill tape; in the future I would stitch around the edges with the foam and fabric first, then attach the twill tape stabilizer to the neckline edges before covering with fold over elastic.

I also decided to try out a few sewing tips I saw on the internet. I think it was on the Janome Instagram account where they hooked their threads over the front of the built in upper thread cutter to avoid bird nesting. I don’t know why but I’ve never seen that done before; I’ve been out here holding the thread in my hands this whole time. But to my shock and awe, it worked! No thread nesting and two hands free to guide the project in place at the start of stitching. It’s kind of annoying to remember to do it, but I think I’m a convert.

Other than testing out new foam and some new stitching techniques though, it was a really straightforward project since I’ve made this pattern a few times at this point. Also good job past me on leaving plenty of notes for stitch settings to use with the bi-level feet. They continue to be my favorite things when attaching channeling. Is it really extra to pull out two feet to do one line of stitching each? Yes, absolutely. Does it bring me immense joy though? Heck yes it does! My topstitching is impeccable and I no longer have any concerns about making the channel opening too narrow. So this project was all about taking delight in the small things because despite my strong desire to add something extra for a little pizzazz, in the end I maintained restraint and I made a really boring beige bra.

Well, ok, I couldn’t resist adding something to jazz it up, so I did end up sewing on a silk flower for decoration.

Overall it’s really a very boring bra but also a really quick and very practical project. I do really enjoy the mix of materials and I think I could be adding a lot more of the thin foam lining to other projects in the future. After wearing it for a day I have come to realize that while I added a bit of height along the wire line for additional wire play, I can easily take it back out of the underarm. I think this will help quite a bit because this bra is already designed to be very full coverage and I think scooping the underarm back out to it’s original style line will make the next version (yes, there will be a next version) even more comfortable. Otherwise I’m really happy with how this turned out and I expect I will be wearing it quite a bit in the foreseeable future.

As much as I’d like to springboard from this quick win to work on even more sewing projects, I need to be responsible and take care of some other much more pressing things over the next few weeks. But I already have way more projects than I have time for planned out for when I return from my next trip. So for now I’ll enjoy my new project and look forward to more sewing closer to the end of July!